Pages in this set

Page 1

Media Representation of Crime
Crime and deviance make up a large proportion of news coverage
Williams and Dickinson found British newspapers devote up to 30% of their news
space to crime
Media gives a distorted image of crime, criminals and policing

Official Statistics

Over represent violent and sexual crimes. 46%…

Page 2

The media as a cause of crime
Concern is that the media has a negative effect on attitudes, values and behaviour
especially groups such as the young, lower class and uneducated
In 1920s and 30s cinema was blamed for corrupting youth
More recently, blamed is rap lyrics and computer games…

Page 3

If successful, their campaigning will in the negative labelling of the beh. & perhaps a
change in law

In a moral panic

The media identify a group as a "folk devil" or threat to societal values
The media present the group in a negative, stereotypical fashion and exaggerate the
scale…

Page 4

Evaluation From a functionalist perspective, moral panics can be seen as a way of
: responding to the sense of anomie or normlessness created by social
change
It assumes that the societal reaction is a disproportionate reaction ­
who is to decide what is a proportionate reaction ­ left realist…